Senator Rand Paul speaks at the opening of the new Detroit office for the Michigan Republican Party in Detroit on Friday Dec. 6, 2013. / Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Washington Staff

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus gestures while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2013. / Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — Following up on last week’s visit to Detroit, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul – along with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus – opined this week on why the nation’s largest bankrupt city needs the GOP.

The two teamed up for a column in Politico Magazine, noting that “the Motor City isn’t particularly known as a hub for Republican politics or conservative activism. ... but it should be.”

Detroit has been at the center of Republican efforts to broaden its base of late: Paul, R-Ky. and a potential presidential candidate in 2016, spoke last week to the Detroit Economic Club, and the state Republican Party opened an African-American outreach center on Livernois the same day.

Priebus also came to the city recently to announce the hiring of Wayne Bradley as state director of African-American engagement.

In Tuesday’s Politico column, the two wrote that while critics “might question our efforts,” Republicans “believe in fighting for individual freedoms and equal opportunity for all, so we will listen to all voters in all neighborhoods, towns and cities.”

“If a political party wants to have an impact, it can’t be in the business of going only where it already has supporters. It should be in the business of going where it can lend its support to important causes and continue to earn the trust of voters in return,” they wrote.

Democrats have chided the Republican effort to reach out to minorities, saying GOP policies could hurt social safety programs that urban residents often rely on. They also have criticized Republican support for voter identification laws across several states they contend could deter blacks and Hispanics from voting.

In their column, Paul and Priebus argued, however, that if lawmakers “can embrace the principles of freedom and free enterprise” it can spur businesses to grow and the party can “give families the freedom to do what’s in their best economic interests by letting them—not bureaucrats—decide everything, from what kind of health care they buy to what kind of energy they use.”